Women Matter

“Introducing more women at leadership level simply introduces broader
perspectives and new ways to manage problems. Diversity is key for a
successful organization. It also allows companies and public entities to
tap into the entire talent pool rather than deprive themselves of half of it.”
– Conglomerate executive and private sector representative, Morocco

Table of
contents

01

03

07

PREFACE

EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY

AFRICAN WOMEN IN
LEADERSHIP:
THE OPPORTUNITY

09

15

19

AFRICAN WOMEN
IN THE PRIVATE
SECTOR

AFRICAN WOMEN
IN GOVERNMENT

NUMBERS DO NOT
NECESSARILY EQUAL
INFLUENCE

23

27

31

GETTING SERIOUS
ABOUT GENDER
DIVERSITY

KEY ACTIONS TO
DRIVE GENDER
DIVERSITY

METHODOLOGY

Preface
In 2007, McKinsey & Company launched its first study

continent. They draw on surveys undertaken

on women in leadership roles. Since then, we have

by 55 leading companies based in Africa, interviews

conducted a total of nine such studies, the results of

with 35 African women leaders, and analysis of the

which we have published in our Women Matter reports.

financial performance of 210 publically traded African

These reports are widely referenced as evidence

companies. These companies fall across seven sectors

of the link between a company’s share of women in

(health care and pharmaceuticals; telecoms, media,

leadership positions and its financial performance

and technology; financial and professional services;

and organizational health. In addition to making the

transportation, logistics, and tourism; consumer

business case for gender diversity, Women Matter has

goods and retail; heavy industry; and global energy

consulted business leaders worldwide to understand

and materials). Women Matter Africa is the first

why women remain under-represented in leadership.

report in the series to look at women in government
as well as the private sector. We found that while

Our initial Women Matter reports focused on

Africa has taken big strides forward, achieving and in

North America and Europe. We have since extended

some cases exceeding global averages, it is far from

our scope to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the

achieving gender equality.

states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. We believe
that exploring specific regional challenges to and

in parliament than the average. Credit for this
growth may go in large part to targets for women’s

Yet gender equality remains some way off. This report

representation set by parliaments and political

therefore examines in detail women’s representation on

parties. Representation rates, however, still need to

Africa’s corporate boards and executive committees,

double if Africa is to achieve gender equality.

and in its parliaments and cabinets. And it examines the
barriers that prevent greater gender diversity as well

Numbers do not equal influence. Although the

as the actions organizations can take to remove them.

number of women in leadership positions may
have risen, women do not necessarily have greater

There are three main findings:

power. In the private sector, more than half of senior
women occupy staff roles rather than the line roles 2

In the private sector, Africa has more women in
executive committee, CEO, and board roles in
companies than the average worldwide. Numbers
vary by industry and region – not surprisingly – and
are much lower in industries that traditionally rely on
men for their workforce (heavy industry, for example).
Yet women are still under-represented at every level
of the corporate ladder – non-management and

from which promotion to CEO typically comes. In
the public sector, approximately half of women
cabinet ministers hold social welfare portfolios,
with arguably limited political influence, that do
not open doors to top leadership roles. Indeed, the
increase in women’s share of cabinet roles appears
to come more from the creation of new social welfare
portfolios than from any real redistribution of power.

middle and senior management – and fall in number
the higher they climb. Only 5 percent of women make
it to the very top.

Research shows that companies with a
greater share of women on their boards
of directors and executive committees
tend to perform better financially.

So what can African organizations do
to make gender diversity a reality?
Our research suggests that many African organizations
do not take gender issues seriously enough, with only
one in three companies in the private sector citing
gender diversity as a CEO priority. Today’s women
leaders have succeeded, it seems, largely through
a combination of opportunity and drive rather than
through a coordinated corporate effort to promote
gender diversity. And organizations do not always
understand the obstacles women face. For example,
the women leaders we interviewed cited attitudes to
women in the workplace as their number one challenge,
whereas organizations gave this much less importance.

Four conscious actions will go a long way
toward redressing the gender balance:

 Confront limiting attitudes toward women in the
workplace. Address unconscious bias by educating
all employees and reviewing and changing processes
(for example, recruitment and performance reviews)
to make decision-making more objective; include men
in gender diversity transformation initiatives; conduct
surveys to understand what the limiting attitudes are.
 Implement a fact-based gender diversity strategy.
Develop a strategy based on solid gender diversity
metrics and address the root causes of lower shares
of women’s representation. Metrics include pay
levels of female versus male staff, women’s attrition
rates and reasons for exiting, the percentage of
women receiving promotions and in which roles/
functions, and organizational health metrics (such as
job satisfaction, perceptions of meritocracy, work-life
balance, and desire for advancement).
Despite the considerable progress that Africa

 Make gender diversity a top board and CEO

has made in raising women’s representation at

priority. Senior leaders should develop and enforce

the top, African governments and companies are

a cohesive gender diversity transformation strategy,

still missing out on the full benefits of gender-

own the communication about this transformation,

diverse leadership teams. If things are to change

monitor progress and lead the change.

– really change – organizations need to commit
to transforming the way they think and act.

 Anchor gender diversity strategies in a compelling
business case. Communicate the business case
simply and clearly so that employees understand
how to link their individual interests to the success of
a gender diversity transformation program.

Woman Matter Africa

4

In Africa...

of CEOs are women

of cabinet members
are women

of parliamentarians
are women

36% 44%
of senior managers
are women

of promotions go
to women

of senior women hold
line roles

Lessons learned from women at the top
The 35 women leaders we interviewed across South
Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Gabon, Senegal, and Morocco
cited a number of factors behind their success:
 Robust work ethic. Go above and beyond what is
expected. Many developed this work ethic in response
to gender bias, that is, they felt they had to work twice
as hard as their male peers from early in their careers.
 Persistence in achieving goals and willingness to
take risks. Set specific goals, work toward them,
and set new ones as soon as they are achieved.
For some, the willingness to take risks (a quality they
saw as uncommon among female peers) – by entering
male-dominated industries or environments, applying
for jobs above the current level, and changing jobs
in pursuit of growth opportunities – was essential to
achieving their leadership goals.
 Resilience in the face of adversity. Cultivate
a veneer of toughness, refuse to take setbacks
personally, have the courage to dissent.
 Commitment to professional development.
Proactively seek career opportunities and ways to
improve as a professional.
 Mentors, sponsors and peer networks. Build
a group of male and female mentors and sponsors
inside and outside the organization as a forum for
honesty, feedback, and self-reflection; actively
mentor juniors and encourage other senior women
to do the same.

Women’s representation on boards
EBIT margin deviation from industry average

31
20

18
9
0

2

-6

-17

Quartile 1

Quartile 2

Quartile 3

Quartile 4

Total number of companies in sample = 210. A quartile is defined as each of four equal groups into which a population can be divided according to the distribution of values of a particular variable
1. 2010 to 2014
SOURCE: Orbis database, 2014

Almost a decade ago, McKinsey launched its first

The same holds true for women’s representation on

study of women in leadership roles. Since then, we

executive committees, which arguably have a stronger

have conducted a total of nine such studies, the

direct influence on an organization’s performance

results of which we have published in our Women

than boards. In Africa, companies in the top quartile

Matter reports. These reports are widely referenced

with regards to women’s representation on executive

as evidence of the link between a company’s share

committees outperformed industry EBIT margins by

of women in leadership positions and its financial

14 percent on average (Exhibit 2).

performance. Organizations with a greater share of
women on their boards tend to have higher operating

Total number of companies in sample = 55, selected from the overall sample of 210 on the basis of availability of data on the number of women on their ExCos. A quartile is defined as each of four
equal groups into which a population can be divided according to the distribution of values of a particular variable
1. 2010-2014
SOURCE: Orbis database, 2014; company annual reports and websites

Total number of companies in sample = 55. Total number of employees in sample = 201,653. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey; they are not the same 55
used for the analysis of EBIT margins
1. ExCo level or direct reports
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015

9. Agriculture and agri-processing companies were not surveyed and this industry is therefore excluded from the analysis
10. According to the Engineering Council of South Africa’s 2013 registry, women constituted 11 percent of trainee engineers and 4 percent of professional engineers

Woman Matter Africa

10

“I have had to be tough working in a maledominated industry like mining.”
– State-owned enterprise executive, South Africa

Total number of companies in sample = 210
SOURCE: Orbis database, 2014

11. Agriculture and agri-processing companies were not surveyed and this industry is therefore excluded from the analysis.
12. The different sample set explains why the figure for women’s representation on African boards differs when making global comparisons or focusing only on Africa 14 percent and 16 percent respectively)

Total number of companies in African sample = 55. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey; they are not the same 55 used for the analysis of EBIT margins
1. Management levels excluding ExCo and direct reports
2. CEO, ExCo and direct reports
3. The share of women in senior management minus the share of women in non-management positions
4. Top quartile companies from survey sample in terms of share of women in senior leadership
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015; McKinsey & Company in collaboration with Lean In, Breaking Down the Gender Challenge, 2016;
McKinsey & Company proprietary database, 2011

Total number of companies in African sample = 55. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey; they are not the same 55 used for the analysis of EBIT margins
1. Management levels excluding ExCo and direct reports
2. CEO, ExCo and direct reports
3. The share of women in senior management minus the share of women in non-management positions
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015

13

Woman Matter Africa

“With more women in leadership, decisionmaking would be more inclusive and
consider multiple points of view.”
– Senior public sector official, Nigeria

and establish a fairly even gender split at the non-

Some companies manage to promote women into

management level, it becomes unbalanced within the

middle management roles but then encounter

first few promotion cycles. In the 55 companies in our

difficulties promoting them to senior management

survey, women make up 45 percent of the workforce

positions. Women are effectively locked out of the top.

but receive just 36 percent of promotions (Exhibit 9).

EXHIBIT 9: Workforce and promotions: women vs men in companies surveyed in Africa

45%

55%

36%

Share of workforce

64%

Share of promotions

1. Total number of companies in sample = 55. Total number of employees in sample = 201,653. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey;
1. they are not the same 55 used for the analysis of EBIT margins
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015; McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace, 2015

Woman Matter Africa

14

African women
in government
The under-utilization of female talent and its

by parliaments and political parties. Today, Africa

impact on performance is not an issue in the

is second only to the European Union in terms of

private sector only. Women leaders are under-

its share of female parliamentarians (Exhibit 11).

represented in the public sector too. This report
focuses on their role in government in Africa,

This relative success by no means holds true

and finds that representation rates still need to

across all regions and countries, however. As in

double if Africa is to achieve gender equality.

the private sector, there is significant variation.
East Africa has by far the largest number of women

From 2000 to 2014, the proportion of women

in parliament. Southern Africa performs just

parliamentarians almost doubled to reach 24

above the African average of 24 percent and North

percent, and women’s representation in cabinet

Africa just below (Exhibit 12), while West Africa

increased fivefold to 22 percent between 1980 and

has the lowest representation at 18 percent.

2014 (Exhibit 10). This growth can in large part be
attributed to targets for women’s representation set

EXHIBIT 10: Women’s representation in parliament and cabinet in Africa

Proportion of women parliamentarians in Africa 1

Proportion of women cabinet ministers in Africa

Percent

Percent

24
22
19
x 1.8

16
13

x 5.5

4

2000

2005

2010

2014

1980

2014

1. Lower or single house only; upper house (where existing) is not included
SOURCE: AfDB, Where are the Women? Inclusive Boardrooms in Africa’s Top-Listed Companies, 2014; www.ipu.org

15

Woman Matter Africa

EXHIBIT 11: Women’s representation in parliament by global region 1,2

18%
US

28%

24%

22%

Africa

Lat Am

EU

15%
Asia

21%
average

1. Lower or single house only; upper house (where existing) is not included
SOURCE: World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report, 2014

Numbers do not
necessarily equal influence
A greater proportion of women at senior levels in

the middle management level, at senior management

business and government cannot be the only goal.

level 65 percent are occupied by women.

The type of roles they undertake is important too
if they are to have as much influence as men.14

Africa is no different. Fifty-six percent of female
senior managers hold staff roles in the companies

In the private sector, most women managers hold

surveyed (Exhibit 16), and there is a substantial

staff roles rather than the line roles that offer

pay gap between men and women holding senior

more exposure to decision-making forums, core

positions in private sector companies18 – arguably

operations, and promotion to CEO16 positions. North

another indicator of women’s lack of influence. In

America17 is a case in point. While staff roles are

South Africa, for example, women board members

divided fairly equally between men and women at

earn 17 percent less than their male counterparts.

15

EXHIBIT 16: Roles held by senior women in companies surveyed in Africa

56%

44%
Line roles

Staff roles

Proportion of senior women in line 1 vs staff roles 2
1. Line roles focus on core operations, e.g., strategy, finance, risk; staff roles focus on support functions, e.g., legal, HR
2. Total number of companies in sample = 55; total number of roles in sample = 127; total number of employees in sample = 201,653. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s
organizational survey; they are not the same 55 companies used for the analysis of EBIT margins
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015; McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace, 2015

14. Defined as a combination of three factors: level of input the leader has into key organizational decisions, share of the organization’s financial resources overseen by the leader, and the size and stature
of the workforce that reports to the leader
15. Staff roles focus on support functions such as HR and legal; line roles focus on core operations such as strategy, finance, and risk
16. McKinsey & Company in partnership with Lean In, 2015, Women in the Workforce
17. McKinsey & Company, 2012, Unlocking the Full Potential of Women at Work
18. PWC, 2015, Non-executive Directors: Practices and Remuneration Trends

19

Woman Matter Africa

It is a similar story in government with regard to the

appointment to head of state or other senior political

types of senior roles women hold. More than 50 percent

roles. It is also worth noting that the ratio of women

of African women cabinet ministers are in charge of

with social welfare portfolios to other functions has not

social welfare portfolios, while only 30 percent lead

changed in the past 25 years, a period in which new

the ministries for treasury, infrastructure, defense,

social welfare portfolios have been created. This, rather

and foreign affairs – arguably departments with more

than a real distribution of power, might account for the

political influence (Exhibit 17). As important as social

higher number of women in cabinet.

19

welfare portfolios are, they do not oversee revenuegenerating resources or decide how revenue should

19. Youth and women’s affairs, arts and culture, tourism and handicrafts, general duties and national guidance, education

Woman Matter Africa

20

“When women step up to volunteer for big
roles, they [men] say, “You’re aggressive.”
I have heard people give glowing praise
to a man who has done something far less
complex than I have.”
– Business woman, South Africa

EXHIBIT 20: The importance of gender diversity in African organizations
Response as a percentage of total, 2015
“We have not discussed it

“We have discussed it

“We have implemented

or we are not sure”

in senior level meetings”

several new policies”

25%

Not important

13%

Limited importance

9%

Quite important

“It’s a top ExCo priority”

22%

Important

“It’s a top CEO priority”

31%

Extremely important

Total number of companies in sample = 55. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey; they are not the same 55 used for the analysis of EBIT margins
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015

23

Woman Matter Africa

“As a woman, the bulk of domestic responsibilities
falls on you. People think, ‘Why does this woman send
emails at 3am?!’…But I juggle differently.”
– Consumer goods executive, South Africa
of opportunity and drive rather than a coordinated

Organizational representatives see the “double

corporate effort to promote gender diversity. Yet

burden” syndrome, whereby working women also

unless gender diversity is at the top of the CEO’s

have to take primary responsibility for domestic

agenda, progress toward it is likely to be slow.

duties, as the biggest barrier to their success.

20

Women see this as an issue too, but say the most

The barriers women face in the

important barrier is attitudes in the workplace that

workplace are poorly understood

result in women being treated differently from men.
Organizations give this considerably less recognition.
Our Women Matter reports have highlighted a range

Organizations and women leaders in Africa have

of unconscious biases – sometimes held by women

different views on the main barriers to more women

as well as men – that are obstacles to women’s

taking on more senior positions (Exhibit 21).

advancement. The performance evaluation bias,
for example, describes how men tend to be evaluated

EXHIBIT 21: Perceptions of the main barriers to success in the workplace: women leaders 1 vs organizations
Percent

What women leaders say

What organization representatives say

Attitudes toward women in the workplace
Double burden syndrome
Anytime, anywhere performance model
Public policies or services not conducive
to women becoming leaders
Tendency of many women to network
less effectively than men
Absence of female role models
Cultural or social expectation that
women will not work continuously
10

20

30

40

50

Total number of companies in sample = 55. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey; they are not the same 55 companies used for the analysis of EBIT margins.
1. Women leaders refer to the 35 women leaders interviewed
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey and interview data, 2015

20. McKinsey & Company in partnership with Lean In, 2015, Women in the Workforce

Woman Matter Africa

24

“Women need to play a proactive role in their
professional development and view it as an
investment in themselves.”
– Telecommunications executive, Nigeria

more on their future potential, and women more on

make-up of the workforce. 21 Sometimes, however, the

what they have achieved to date. Women also tend to

problem lies in poorly designed initiatives that do not

be given less credit for their success than men, and

adequately improve the experience of the women that

to be criticized more for any failure. The resulting lack

they are targeting, poorly implemented initiatives, lack

of confidence means women are less likely to put

of sponsorship at the very top of the organization or

themselves up for promotion. There is also a maternal

buy-in from middle management. And sometimes the

bias: motherhood triggers assumptions that women

initiatives chosen fail to tackle the underlying problems.

are less committed to their careers. As a result, they
tend to be held to higher standards and offered fewer

Exhibit 22 shows the kinds of initiatives implemented

leadership opportunities.

by those companies in our survey that are actively
seeking to improve gender diversity. The most common

Programs to redress the gender balance

measures overall are leadership skill-building programs

do not tackle the right issues

and setting targets to boost women’s representation.

At the time of publishing, 67 percent of the companies
surveyed had gender diversity initiatives in place. Yet
only 27 percent of these companies reported any level
of success in developing more women leaders. Why are
they not having more impact?
It may be too early to show results: gender diversity
initiatives can take up to five years to change the

These are both important. Yet among companies with
a higher representation of women in senior
management the most common measure is flexible
working hours – one of a range of initiatives that
ease the double burden. These companies are also
more likely to allow their employees to work from
home. However, only 15 percent of all companies
tackle women leaders’ primary concern – attitudes
in the workplace.

21. Yukiki Nakagawa, 2014, The Gender Diversity-Firm Performance Relationship by Industry Type, Working Hours and Inclusiveness: An Empirical Study of Japanese Firms,
International Journal of Advances in Management and Economics

25

Woman Matter Africa

“Both public services and the private
sector are a man’s world with all types of
discrimination toward women, ranging
from harassment to the limitation of their
prospects of promotion.”
– Public sector official, Gabon

Total number of companies in sample = 55. These are the 55 companies that responded to McKinsey’s organizational survey; they are not the same 55 companies used for the analysis of EBIT margins.
Women leaders refer to the 35 women leaders interviewed
SOURCE: McKinsey & Company, Women Matter Africa survey data, 2015

Large-scale strategic and operational change requires
role-modeling from senior leaders. Research22 shows
that when the CEO is a chief advocate for change, the
workforce is more inclined to believe that it is important
and mirror the CEO’s mind-set and behaviors. Thus
boards and CEOs must engage visibly with the
organization’s transformation initiatives by attending
women’s events, participating in discussions on gender
diversity and regularly reviewing progress, for example.
In addition, to demonstrate their commitment they can:
 Set targets and key performance indicators
(KPIs) for women’s representation in leadership
and the broader workforce and review these
targets regularly. Experience elsewhere shows
that companies with formal gender diversity
commitments increase female representation in the
corporate pipeline the fastest, while those with no
formal commitments actually lose ground over time.23
Our survey revealed that 47 percent of companies
with clear targets have an above-average share
of women in senior leadership positions. Yet to be

thus seen as a credible proxy in terms of intention
and authority. The targets could be incorporated into
the KPIs of each senior executive and reinforced by
performance incentives. KPIs are most successful
when they are explicit by function and level and
refreshed regularly, perhaps annually.24 A good KPI
might stipulate a minimum of 40 percent women
appointees to middle management roles by the
end of the financial year, for example. Decisionmaking structures such as recruitment criteria and
promotion requirements should be defined as clearly
and objectively as possible to eliminate bias and
protect meritocracy.
 Lead communications on the gender diversity
strategy. It is the CEO’s role to communicate
to employees the strategy to increase women’s
representation, and inspire them to help bring about
change. Face-to-face communication – town halls
or networking events, for example – create a real
dialogue and assure employees that leadership
commitment is strong. Communication about
progress will need to be frequent and honest.

“The corporate world needs a mix of people to ensure that
employers are responsible, that is, not deciding for women
what they can or cannot handle.”
– Financial services executive, Nigeria

Anchor gender diversity strategies in

gender diversity initiatives. Many companies unwittingly

a compelling business case

exclude men from the gender diversity conversation

The results of our African survey show that the EBIT
margin of companies in the top quartile in terms of
the share of women on their boards were on average
a fifth higher than the industry average and the same
holds true for women’s representation on executive
committees. That is, companies in the top quartile
with regards to women’s representation on executive
committees outperformed industry EBIT margins by
14 percent on average. African women leaders also
stress how the benefits of diversity extend to areas
such as risk management, decision-making, and board
dynamics – all of which can have an impact on financial
performance – and global research supports this view.
The link between women’s leadership and EBIT
performance, and between gender diversity and better
decision-making, is the basis on which to build a robust
business case. Each industry and company must build
its own case and communicate it simply and clearly to
give employees the rationale they need to link their own
interests to the success of gender diversity programs.

Confront limiting attitudes toward women
in the workplace

and give the impression that it is a women-only issue.
Yet men are the largest stakeholder group in most
private and public sector companies and organizations.
Unless they engage and invest in changing the status
quo, their attitudes will continue to be an obstacle to
gender diversity targets. Organizations should also
conduct surveys to understand what form the limiting
attitudes take. Tackling bias can include the following
measures:
 Define and implement a robust leadership model
that explicitly defines the leadership attributes valued
by the company including, for example, fairness and
willingness to act as a mentor.
 Get people to experience bias on a personal level.
Google, for example, encourages employees to
take a test to measure their bias. Workshops are
another possibility.
 Remind people about gender bias before making
decisions, to guard against subjective perspectives.
 Define objective scoring criteria for processes
that are especially vulnerable to bias, such as
recruiting and performance reviews. Ensure that

need to be made and, later, indicates whether progress
has been achieved and hence whether companies

Once the starting point is understood, it is important

are focusing their efforts in the right areas. A gender

to design initiatives that address the root causes

diversity strategy is no exception, yet very few

of lower levels of women’s participation and leakage

organizations gather or codify information on their

of women along the pipeline. This could include

current standing. To assess diversity across functions,

initiatives that enable women to better balance home

business units, and regions, organizations must collect,

and work, such as flexible working arrangements and

analyze, and monitor HR data that shows the

maternity leave policies.

gender balance at every level. Key metrics include:
 Pay levels. Track gender pay gaps and their causes –
differences in qualifications or experience, for example Africa has made considerable strides in ensuring
women are better represented at senior levels in
– to understand where and how to act.
business and government. The continent equals –
 Leakage. To develop strategies to increase retention

and sometimes beats – the rest of the world. There

rates for women, understand why more women than

is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality,

men leave and why.

however, not only in terms of women’s share of senior
roles but also in the types of leadership roles they

 Promotions. Understand why men are promoted

occupy. In the private sector, increasing women’s

more often than women and the obstacles women

representation at the top makes good business sense,

face.

as there is a link with financial performance. Yet if things
are to change – really change – organizations in both

 Concentration of women in staff versus line roles.
Have a clear view of the distribution of women across

the private and government spheres need to commit
to transforming the way they think and act.

all roles and remove barriers that may prevent them
from occupying line roles.

for a company, we selected the next largest company.
The breakdown of companies by country is as follows

South Africa

49

Nigeria

44

Kenya

25

Morocco

17

Ghana

14

Egypt

13

Botswana

11

Côte d’Ivoire

11

Tanzania

8

Zambia

6

We used the Orbis database to collect data on

Namibia

4

financial performance for 210 publically traded African

Uganda

4

companies across 14 African stock exchanges based

Senegal

2

on the criteria below:

Tunisia

2

Financial performance analysis

 In each sub-region (North, Southern, East, and
West26), we selected stock exchanges according
to individual countries’ populations and number of
listed companies. The 14 stock exchanges represent
more than 50 percent of the continent’s population
and more than 60 percent of its GDP: South Africa,

 For each of the 210 companies we compiled the
EBIT margin and number of male and female board
members from 2010 to 2014. In line with the analytical
methodology used for McKinsey’s Diversity Matters
work, we analyzed this data as follows:

Report 2014;28 the International Labor Organization,
Women in Business and Management; the AfDB,

Consumer goods and retail

13

Global energy and materials

4

Financial and professional services

20

Health care and pharmaceuticals

5

Heavy industry

1

Telecoms, media, and technology

Where are the Women? Inclusive Boardrooms in
Africa’s Top-Listed Companies
 Major business publications, including Forbes,
Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal,
The Economist

10

Transport, logistics, and tourism

2

 Leading academic research, including the
American Journal of Political Science, Ethnic Politics

Interview narrative analysis
We interviewed 35 women leaders in six countries:
South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Gabon, Senegal,
and Morocco. The purpose of the interviews was
to collect accounts of their individual paths to

and Women’s Empowerment in Africa: Ministerial
Appointments to Executive Cabinets; the International
Journal of Business Governance and Ethics,
Why Women Make Better Directors
 Press articles

leadership, including any challenges and how they
overcame them, and how they believed gender diversity
would improve organizational performance. In some
areas, we used interview data to triangulate or compare
against findings from the organizational survey.

28. We used the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2014 to inform our analysis of African countries’ performance in terms of two metrics: economic participation and political empowerment (see Section
2 of the report). Both of these metrics are a weighted average score of several sub-indices scores. The metric score is indexed to a 0-to-1 scale, where 0 denotes no female representation and 1 denotes female
representation on a par with or exceeding that of male peers

33

Woman Matter Africa

“I felt that I had to work a bit harder as a woman, as I am
representing all women. I never wanted people to feel I succeeded
just because I was a woman.”
– Senior development banking professional, Nigeria

We are truly comitted to transformation within our
organization and in Africa, and will continue to find ways to
have meaningful and sustainable impact.

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